"Both institutions have long histories of service-learning and believe strongly in preparing graduates to be active leaders and participants in an ever changing world," said Augustana President Steven Bahls. "Our students who serve our community today will be leaders in the community tomorrow."

“Service to the community is simply a part of who we are as a university,” said Joan Lescinski, CSJ, PhD, president of St. Ambrose University. “We are truly honored to have been chosen for the President’s Community Service Honor Roll. More importantly, we are proud of our students as they fulfill the St. Ambrose mission of ‘enriching lives.’”

Among volunteer efforts of which the two colleges are especially proud:

Augustana: The Redwood Movement, a stop-frame, documentary film created by students as a way of giving back to the community, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program and the ongoing partnership between the college and Longfellow Liberal Arts School.

St. Ambrose: “Urban Plunge” involved more than 560 first-year and transfer students who performed 1,400 hours of simultaneous volunteer service across the Quad Cites as an introduction to the university’s culture of service.

“Congratulations to both St. Ambrose and Augustana, their faculty, staff and students for their commitment to service, both in and out of the classroom,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). “Through hard work, institutions of higher education are helping improve local communities and create a new generation of leaders by challenging students to go beyond the traditional college experience and solve local challenges.”

Inspired by the thousands of college students who traveled across the country to support relief efforts along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, CNCS has administered the award since 2006 and manages the program in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the American Council on Education and Campus Compact.

The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll honors the nation’s leading higher education institutions and their students, faculty and staff for their commitment to bettering their communities through service. These are institutions that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achieve meaningful outcomes in their communities.

CNCS is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, the Social Innovation Fund and other programs, and leads President Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve.